Skills! There’s a bunch of them in Eschalon: Book 1. Some are classics like lock-picking or swords. Others are a bit strange, like Cartography or Skullduggery. I like that there’s a wide range of skills. I don’t like that not all of them are useful.

My biggest problem with skills is Cartography. If you don’t have any points in it, you don’t get a mini-map. At all. Your character is apparently too stupid to draw on paper. What’s worse is that you need a certain level with Cartography – I think it was 5 points – to know how to use blue to mark water.

Yes. A character in Eschalon: Book 1 with less than 5 points in Cartography is worse at drawing maps than my 4 year-old cousin.

A bunch of points in Cartography will indicate chests, enemies, and other stuff. I love the idea, but I hate the execution.

Lock-picking’s okay. You have a percent chance to unlock any door or chest you come across. Lockpicks can break, and I never had more than a 55% chance to open any lock, no matter my skills or ability points. I bought maybe 15 lockpicks through the entire game, and went through maybe 4 of those? It was an okay system.